Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters released in January the manifesto written by Ryan Palmeter, who fatally shot three people in a racially motivated attack that happened last August at a Dollar General in Florida last year before turning the gun on himself.
The manifesto was released following the completion of an investigation into the circumstances that led to the shooting by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department.
In a statement released on January 19, Waters explained that his office was releasing “the manifesto of the murderer who senselessly took the lives of three members of our community” to maintain his promise “that our agency would release this manifesto when doing so would not compromise the integrity of the investigation.”
“Now that this investigation is complete, the manifesto’s release poses no potential investigative hindrance,” Waters continued. “Transparency is at the heart of this administration’s core values. By releasing the manifesto, we remain consistent with our commitment to transparency.”
Further explaining the release of the manifesto roughly six months after the shooting, Waters added that “[m]embers of the public deserve to determine, firsthand, that this manifesto is filled with the rantings of an isolated, hateful, madman, whose disgusting ideology is wholly inconsistent with the belief structure of the Jacksonville community.”
Multiple local media outlets said they would not publish materials from the manifesto, though it remains available for public access on the sheriff’s website.
The release of the Palmeter manifesto stands in stark contrast to the suppression of the manifesto written by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who fatally shot six people at the Covenant School last March, including three 9-year-old students and three staff members, before police fatally shot her.
Nearly a year later, both the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have refused to release Hale’s manifesto. Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star, is a plaintiff in lawsuits demanding both law enforcement agencies release the manifesto.
Despite three pages from the manifesto surfacing last year, both agencies remain committed to litigation to prevent their release, and the FBI previously claimed that releasing even one page from Hale’s manifesto could compromise ongoing investigations.
Also, in contrast to the Jacksonville and Nashville cases are the contents of the manifestos.
Palmeter’s manifesto indicates he was almost entirely motivated by racial hatred, while the three pages of Hale’s manifesto published by conservative commentator and comedian Steven Crowder in November 2023 indicated Hale, a biological female who identified as a male before her death, was motivated by hatred for her white, Christian victims.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Dollar General Store” by Random Retail. CC BY 2.0.
Release the manifesto of Audrey Hale…..
How are we supposed to get any learning from the Covenant shooting unless we understand what was in the mind of the shooter?
This is travesty to not release the manifesto.
But this is what Socialist Davidson County wants!
What a total failure the Nashville Justice system is!